Hewett 
The  Pajaritan  Culture 


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THE  4PAJARITAN   CULTURE 


IN  proposing  the  name  which  is  now  generally  accepted  for 
the  plateau  lying  between  the  Jemez  Mountains  and  the  Rio 
Grande  and  extending  from  the  Chama  valley  to  Canada  de 
Cochiti,  the  writer  chose  the  central  geographical  feature  of 
the  area,  i.e.  the  Pajarito  canyon  (Spanish  pajarito,  a  little 
bird,  a  sparrow).  The  Tewa  name,  Tchirege  (the  place  of  the 
Bird  people),  is  applied  to  a  "  cliff  city  "  on  the  northern  rim 
of  this  canyon,  more  extensive  even  than  Puye,  in  which,  as 
well  as  in  the  neighboring  villages,  I  have  made  considerable 
excavations.  These  investigations  made  known  a  new  region 
and  a  culture  for  which  a  more  definite  term  than  "  Pueblo  "  or 
"  Ancient  Pueblo  "  or  "  Ancient  Tewa  "  seems  necessary.  It 
will  suffice  for  the  moment  to  state  the  three  principal  reasons 
for  withholding  assent  to  the  long-accepted  dictum  that 
the  Tewa  and  other  Pueblos  are  merely  the  descendants  of 
the  ancient  cliff  dwellers,  and  this  point  will  be  discussed 
at  greater  length  further  on  in  this  paper.  1.  There  is 
general  non-conformity  between  Tewa  symbolism  and  Pajari- 
tan  symbolism.  2.  There  is  non-conformity  of  physical  type, 
the  Pajaritans  having  been  a  homogeneous  people  of  dolicoce- 
phalic  type,  while  the  Tewa,  and  all  other  Pueblos,  are  non- 
homogeneous,  and  predominantly  brachycephalic.  3.  Tewa 
tradition,  when  thoroughly  sifted,  does  not  support  the  hypoth- 
esis of  identity.  These  facts  have  seemed  to  me  of  sufficient 
importance  to  warrant,  pending  the  acquisition  of  further  infor- 
mation, the  tentative  establishment  of  a  culture  which,  from  the 
community  on  which  the  type  is  based,  I  have  named  the 
Pajaritan. 

The  archaeological  remains  of  this  culture  are  scattered  over 
almost  the  whole  of  the  Pajarito  plateau.  There  were  three 
principal  foci  of  population,  the  Puye,  the  Pajarito,  and  the 

American  Journal  of  Archaeology,  Second  Series.     Journal  of  the  334 

Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  Vol.  XIII  (1909),  No.  8. 


THE  PAJAB1TAN  CULTURE  335 

Rito  de  los  Frijoles.  The  degree  of  ethnic  relationship  between 
these  groups  remains  to  be  established,  but  certain  common 
characteristics  that  persist  throughout  indicate  relationship  as 
close  perhaps  as  that  now  existing  between  the  Tewa  villages 
of  San  Juan,  Santa  Clara,  and  San  Ildefonso,  though  it  does  not 
necessarily  follow  that  the  same  language  was  spoken  in  the 
three  groups  of  settlements.  These  groups  afford  exceptional 
facilities  for  the  study  of  the  development  of  culture  through 
a  long  period  of  time.  ,  The  geographical  isolation  was  such 
as  to  induce  definite,  homogeneous  development.  That  this 
isolation  was  well  preserved  is  shown  in  the  homogeneity  of 
both  the  physical  type  and  the  cultural  remains.  In  the  art  of 
the  Pajaritans  we  may  read  several  centuries  of  their  history.  It 
is  entirely  pre-Spanish,  the  excavations  having  never  yet  yielded 
a  vestige  of  European  influence,  and  so  distinctly  does  it  reflect 
the  civilization  in  which  it  was  produced  that  a  specimen  of 
pottery  from  this  region  is  as  unmistakable  to  the  trained  eye 
as  is  anything  Greek,  Etruscan,  or  Egyptian. 

It  would  seem  that  some  ancient  culture  wave,  traversing  the 
Rio  Grande  valley  in  very  remote  times,  must  have  thrown  off 
detachments  which  lodged  upon  this  plateau.  The  cause  of 
the  unique  localization  of  these  bands  is  not  at  first  thought 
clear.  It  is  unlikely  that  motives  of  defence  directed  the  choice, 
as  would  at  first  seem  obvious,  for  much  evidence  tends  to  show 
that  the  modern  predatory  tribes,  Navaho,  Apache,  and  Ute, 
arrived  in  the  Southwest  in  comparatively  recent  times.  As  I 
have  shown  in  a  previous  paper,1  the  construction  of  the  great 
defensive  community  houses  of  the  Pajaritans  belongs  to  the 
latest  epoch  of  their  history.  For  a  long  period  they  were 
dispersed  over  the  plateau.  This  was  the  epoch  of  the  "  small 
houses,"  of  which  several  thousand  have  been  counted  in  this 
region.  As  I  have  shown  in  a  previous  paper,2  there  is  both 
archaeological  and  physiographic  evidence  that  the  earliest 
inhabitants  of  this  region  arrived  at  a  time  when  climatic 
conditions  were  radically  different  from  those  of  the  present. 
The  proof  of  slow,  progressive  desiccation  of  the  Southwest  is 

1  Archaeology  of  Pajarito  Plateau,  New  Mexico ;  American  Anthropologist, 
October-December,  1904. 

2  Les  Communautes  Anciennes  dans  le  Desert  Americain,  Chapter  III. 


1171529 


336  EDGAR   L.    HEWETT 

abundant.  The  Pajarito  plateau  has  lain  uninhabited  for  ages 
because  of  the  almost  total  absence  of  water.  The  great  com- 
munities, representing  the  last  stages  of  habitation,  clustered 
about  the  gradually  failing  springs.  The  earlier  "  small  house  " 
communities  were  found  everywhere,  indicating  a  general 
climatic  condition  favorable  to  agriculture.  It  would  thus 
appear  that  the  reason  for  selection  of  this  plateau  as  a  place  of 
residence  by  those  early  bands  that  first  settled  here  was  simply 
that  in  those  times  this  now  desiccated  table-land  afforded 
more  favorable  conditions  for  subsistence  than  did  the  adjacent 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande;  a  condition  now  reversed.  This 
diffusion  of  population  would  seem  to  imply  a  social  organiza- 
tion different  from  that  existing  among  the  people  of  the  great 
community  houses  where  the  system  was  the  prototype  of  the 
modern  Pueblo.  Such,  however,  is  not  the  case.  In  the 
dispersed  "  small  house  "  communities  there  were  fully  devel- 
oped the  basic  principles  of  tribal  structure  that  govern  in 
Pueblo  organization  to-day.  There  was  lacking  only  the  ele- 
ment of  dual  organization,  a  social  phenomenon  that  attended 
the  coming  together  of  numerous  clans  into  great  communities. 
This  fact  of  genetic  aggregation  persists  among  the  Pueblos 
to-day.  In  the  "small  house "  communities  the  groupal  unit  was 
the  clan.  The  basic  social  fact  was  the  matriarchal  system,  by 
"virtue  of  which  all  domestic  authority  resided  in  the  mother. 
The  fundamental  fact  of  the  religious  order  in  the  modern 
Pueblos  is  the  dual  hierarchy,  by  virtue  of  which  the  sacerdo- 
tal authority  is  lodged  in  two  priests,  the  Summer  cacique  and 
the  Winter  cacique,  who  have  charge  of  the  ceremonials  of  their 
respective  seasons.  This  developed  along  with  the  movement 
toward  close  community  aggregation.  But  that  the  basic 
elements  of  it  existed  in  the  "  small  house  "  communities  is 
disclosed  in  the  house  remains.  The  structural  germ  of  every 
community  house  was  the  kiva,  the  circular  subterranean  room 
that  is  found  in  conjunction  with  all  the  community  houses, 
small  and  great,  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  San  Juan  valleys . 
This  was  the  clan  sanctuary,  the  place  set  aside,  before  the 
first  stone  of  the  dwelling  was  laid,  for  prayer  and  religious 
ceremony. 

No   other  single   object  in   southwestern  archaeology  is   of 


THE  PAJAE1TAN  CULTURE  337 

greater  interest  than  these  subterranean  sanctuaries.  Every- 
where we  find  the  kiva  as  the  nucleus  of  the  settlement.  In 
southeastern  Utah,  especially  in  the  Montezuma  canyon,  the 
circular  underground  kiva  is  conspicuous  in  connection  with 
every  ruin  group  even  though  it  may  consist  of  only  two  or 
three  rooms.  The  evidences  that  we  have  accumulated  in 
Utah,  Colorado,  and  New  Mexico  during  the  last  two  seasons 
point  to  the  kiva  as  the  germ  of  every  pueblo  community. 
It  seems  that  the  first  act  of  the  clan  was  to  locate  its  sanctuary 
and  around  it  extend  its  living  rooms.  In  the  small  commu- 
nity houses  scattered  all  over  the  Pajarito  plateau  we  find,  as  in 
southern  Utah,  first  of  all  the  kiva.  With  the  formation  of 
the  great  communities  it  would  seem  that  a  new  feature  of 
tribal  organization  developed,  namely,  that  of  the  dual  hier- 
archy, and  with  this  came  the  dual  kiva  system,  the  common 
sanctuary  for  each  division  of  the  tribe,  the  essential  point 
around  which  the  settlement  could  grow.  In  it  was  centred 
all  that  was  vital  to  the  life  and  happiness  of  the  people.  It 
was  the  place  of  silence,  the  sanctuary  to  which  those  charged 
with  the  sacerdotal  functions  of  the  clan  retired  for  thought, 
for  prayer,  for  offering,  for  sacrifice.  It  was  the  place  for 
the  performance  of  secret  religious  rites  and  preparation  for 
public  ceremonials.  In  gathering  about  the  Sipapu,  men  again 
approached  the  Earth  Mother,  they  sought  the  channels  of 
ancient  wisdom,  they  were  at  the  portal  whence  life  itself 
emerged.  I  quote  here  from  the  sayings  of  Pueblo  priests  of 
to-day,  according  to  whom  it  is  not  quite  correct  to  speak  of  the 
Sipapu  as  symbolizing  the  entrance  to  the  underworld.  In  the 
kiva  of  the  Rio  Grande  clans  and  the  observances  clustering 
about  it,  we  have  symbolized  the  Pueblo  conception  of  human 
birth,  the  origin  of  life,  and  the  ordering  of  human  conduct. 

In  Pueblo  organization  to-day,  the  clan  kiva  has  almost  dis- 
appeared. It  still  remains  at  Taos,  but  at  San  Juan,  Santa 
Clara,  San  Ildefonso,  Nambe,  and  Cochiti  only  tribal  kivas 
remain.  There  is  the  kiva  of  the  Summer  people  and  the  kiva 
of  the  Winter  people.  In  some  cases  one  of  these  is  subter- 
ranean or  semi-subterranean,  the  other  wholly  above  ground. 
The  religious  functions  of  the  tribe  are,  as  above  stated,  in 
the  hands  of  two  priests,  the  Summer  cacique  and  the  Winter 


338  EDGAR  L.   HEWETT 

cacique.  Each  one  has  charge  of  the  ceremonials  pertaining  to 
his  season,  and  each  one  officiates  in  the  sanctuary  pertaining  to 
that  division.  The  history  and  meaning  of  this  dual  organiza- 
tion are  not  yet  fully  known. 

In  connection  with  the  uses  of  the  kiva  among  the  Pueblos, 
it  is  interesting  to  note  the  following  parallel  in  Pawnee  ritual. 
I  quote  freely  from  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher's  study  of  the 
Hako.1 

"  The  first  stanza  of  the  second  part  calls  the  people  to  give 
heed  to  Ku-sha-ru,  a  place  set  apart  for  sacred  purposes.  Con- 
cerning Ku-sha-ru,  the  old  priest  said  :  '  The  first  act  of 
man  must  be  to  set  apart  a  place  that  can  be  made  holy  and  be 
consecrated  to  Ti-ra-wa,  a  place  where  a  man  can  be  quiet  and 
think  about  the  mighty  unseen  power.' ' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  first  stanza  of  the  first  part 
made  mention  of  A-wa-hok-shu,  the  holy  place,  the  abode  of 
Ti-ra-wa,  whence  life  was  given  to  man  through  the  interme- 
diary powers.  The  first  stanza  of  the  second  part  directs  that 
man  should  set  apart  a  holy  place,  where  his  thoughts  could 
ascend  to  the  life-giving  Ti-ra-wa. 

The  old  priest  further  explained  :  "  We  are  taught  that  be- 
fore a  man  can  build  a  dwelling,  he  must  select  a  place  and 
make  it  sacred,  and  then  about  that  consecrated  spot  he  can 
erect  a  dwelling  where  his  family  can  live  peacefully.  Ku- 
sha-ru  represents  the  place  where  a  man  can  seek  the  powers 
and  where  the  powers  can  come  near  to  him." 

There  is  to  be  noted  here  a  most  significant  similarity  be- 
tween the  Pueblo  kiva  as  the  essential  nucleus  of  a  settlement 
and  the  "  sacred  place  "  of  the  Pawnee. 

The  arts  of  the  people  of  the  plateau  were  those  of  practically 
all  the  ancient  sedentary  tribes  of  the  Southwest.  Their 
highest  attainment  was  in  pottery -making,  and  in  this  their  only 
unusual  achievement  was  in  the  use  of  glazing  in  ornamentation. 
That  they  had  discovered  the  art  of  glazing  and  were  using  it 
with  fine  effect  in  decoration  cannot  be  questioned.  In  the 
greater  part  of  the  beautiful  red  and  brown  ware  found  at  Puye, 
Otowi,  and  Tyuonyi  the  black  lines  were  covered  with  a  vitre- 
ous coating  which  chemical  analysis  proves  to  be  a  true  glaze. 
1  Rep.  Bur.  Amer.  Ethnol.  XXII,  2,  p.  33,  and  pp.  284-285. 


THE  PAJAEITAN  CULTURE  389 

It  has  been  used  solely  for  decorative  effects,  and  while  usually 
applied  over  black  lines,  giving  the  peculiar  under-glaze  effect, 
the  material  has,  doubtless  intentionally,  been  caused  to  spread 
over  large  areas,  producing  striking  effects,  especially  when  by 
reason  of  iron  in  the  clay,  rich  iridescent  hues  have  occurred. 
But  one  specimen  has  been  found,  a  small  prayer  meal  bowl  at 
Puye,  in  which  an  entire  surface  of  the  vessel  is  covered  with 
the  glaze. 

The  process  of  glazing  as  practised  by  the  Pajaritans  was 
very  simple.  After  the  vessel  had  been  decorated  and  fired  in 
the  usual  manner,  a  saturated  solution  of  salt  water  was  laid  on 
over  the  ornament  and  the  vessel  again  fired  under  as  great  a 
degree  of  heat  as  they  were  able  to  produce  in  their  primitive 
kiln.  The  soda  of  the  solution  combining  with  the  silica  of  the 
clay  produced  over  the  design,  and  over  all  surfaces  on  which 
the  solution  might  have  been  spread,  a  true  transparent  glaze 
which  could  never  scale  or  peel  off  without  taking  with  it  the 
clay  of  the  vessel  itself  to  the  full  depth  to  which  the  salt  water 
had  penetrated.  As  above  noted,  the  spreading  of  the  solution 
and  the  occurrence  of  oxides  in  the  clay  produced  beautiful 
accidental  effects,  particularly  the  rich  iridescent  tints  found 
on  the  pottery  at  Puye  and  Tyuonyi. 

Glazing  was  practised  to  some  extent  in  the  valley  of  the 
Little  Colorado,  but  the  art  was  probably  carried  there  in  the 
course  of  migrations  from  the  Rio  Grande  drainage.  It  is  of 
quite  an  inferior  order.  In  fact,  nowhere  else  on  the  American 
continent  was  the  art  of  glazing  so  well  understood  as  in  this 
region.  It  was  long  held,  and  may  still  be  held  by  some 
American  archaeologists,  that  the  art  of  glazing  was  not  indige- 
nous to  America  and  that  wherever  found  it  is  an  indication  of 
European  influence.  In  fact,  by  some  it  has  been  called  the 
*'  Spanish  glaze."  We  have  shown  the  contrary  to  be  true. 
It  was  practised  on  the  plateau  west  of  the  Rio  Grande  for 
centuries  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards,  and  ceased  to  be 
practised  during  the  upheaval  that  occurred  with  the  coming 
of  the  conquerors.  The  art  is  unknown  to  the  modern  Pueblos, 
is  never  seen  in  the  specimens  of  archaic  pottery,  sacred  vessels, 
and  heirlooms  that  have  been  handed  down  among  them  for 
many  generations,  and  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  refuse  heap  of 


340  EDGAR  L.    HEWETT 

their  villages  which  go  back  over  almost  the  entire  historical 
period.  On  the  other  hand,  it  occurs  profusely  in  all  the  ruins 
on  the  western  plateau,  where  no  vestige  of  European  influence 
has  ever  been  found  —  sites  which  if  occupied  at  the  time  of  the 
conquest  could  not  have  escaped  mention  in  the  ecclesiastical 
records.  It  may  then  be  safely  affirmed  that  decorative  glaz- 
ing was  an  indigenous  American  art,  and  I  should  be  inclined 
to  consider  the  plateaus  of  the  Rio  Grande  drainage  as  the 
place  of  its  origin. 

As  stated  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper,  it  cannot  be  said 
that  the  ancient  people  of  Pajarito  plateau  were  the  immediate 
ancestors  of  the  tribes  living  now  in  the  Rio  Grande  valley. 
That  there  was  relationship  is  not  questioned,  but  the  degree 
of  relationship  is  yet  to  be  determined.  It  is  the  theory  of 
absolute  identity  that  is  not  entirely  accepted.  This  general 
theory  concerning  the  ancestry  of  the  Pueblos  was  first  an- 
nounced by  no  less  authority  than  Major  Powell  and  for  many 
years  was  accepted  as  conclusive.  It  was  based  upon  facts  of 
similarity  in  culture  and  upon  the  statements  of  the  living 
Indians.  My  reasons  for  the  rejection  of  this  theory  were 
stated  briefly  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper  and  will  here  be 
touched  upon  again.  First,  the  symbols  with  which  the  ancient 
people  of  Pajarito  decorated  their  pottery  were  entirely  different 
from  those  of  the  Pueblos  of  the  present  day.  This  fact  was 
pointed  out  by  me  and  supported  by  a  large  series  of  illustra- 
tions in  a  paper  read  before  Section  H  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science  at  Washington  in  1902. 
The  system  of  symbolism  of  the  Pajaritans  is  dominated  by 
one  definite  idea.  The  prevailing  motive  throughout  all  their 
decoration  was  that  of  the  Awanyu.  It  is  the  emblem  of  a 
mythic  power.  Awanyu  was  the  preserver  of  water,  the 
guardian  of  springs  and  streams,  the  preserver  of  life  ;  for  with- 
out water,  crops,  food,  life,  must  fail.  The  history  of  the  last 
epoch  of  the  occupation  of  this  plateau,  and  this  is  the  epoch 
of  highest  development  in  art,  social  organization,  and  religious 
life,  is  a  history  of  unceasing  struggle  against  failing  nature. 
Subsistence  became  constantly  more  and  more  uncertain,  life 
more  and  more  precarious.  It  was  just  the  condition  necessary 
to  the  development  of  ritual  and  the  elaboration  of  symbolism. 


THE  PAJAE1TAN  CULTURE  341 

So  we  find  everywhere  the  one  idea  projected  in  symbolic 
ornamentation  upon  the  food  bowls  and  water-jars ;  Awanyu, 
emblem  of  mythic  power,  represented  by  the  great  prayer 
plumes,  or  the  circuit  in  which  the  power  habitually  moved,  or 
the  great  band  across  the  concavity  of  the  vessel  —  the  Sky-Path 
of  the  mighty  power.  In  Tewa  tradition  there  is  the  belief 
that  the  disappearance  of  the  Pajaritan  people  was  due  to  their 
loss  of  favor  with  Awanyu,  after  which  he  "  threw  himself 
across  the  sky."  The  origin  of  the  Milky  Way  is  thus  ac- 
counted for. 

The  ancient  cycle  of  Pajaritan  mythology  is  entirely  broken 
down,  and  the  merest  fragments  can  be  recovered  from  a  few  of 
the  old  men  of  the  different  villages.  It  has  been  submerged 
by  the  more  vital  mythology  of  a  more  recent  epoch.  The 
dominant  religious  symbol  of  the  Pueblos  of  the  present  day, 
seen  on  all  their  prayer  meal  bowls  and  etched  upon  the  rocks, 
is  the  plumed  serpent  called  by  them  Awanyu,  but  never  con- 
fused with  the  Awanyu  of  the  ancients.  It  is  a  representative 
figure  in  reptilian  form,  furnished  with  plumes  upon  head  and 
body,  pictured  as  moving  through  the  air  and  often  drawn  with 
great  vigor.  It  is  a  symbol  that  is  widely  distributed  over  the 
American  continent,  and  the  being  which  it  represents  was 
doubtless  one  of  the  principal  deities  of  the  ancient  Mexicans. 
Nowhere  else  has  it  been  used  on  so  magnificent  a  scale  and 
with  such  remarkable  effect  as  a  decorative  motive  as  upon  the 
Aztec  temple  of  Xochicalco  near  Cuernavaca  in  Mexico.  In 
this  connection  a  myth  of  the  Tlauicas,  a  branch  of  the  Aztec 
stock  inhabiting  the  Cuernavaca  valley,  with  reference  to  a 
mythic  power,  represented  by  them  in  serpent  form  and  now 
seen  in  the  Milky  Way,  is  significant. 

The  most  convincing  testimony  on  the  subject  of  the  non- 
identity  of  the  Pajaritans  with  the  modern  Pueblos  is  that  of 
their  physical  characters.  The  skeletal  remains  that  have  been 
collected,  in  one  case  as  many  as  125  subjects  from  a  single 
burial  place,  have  been  examined  by  Doctor  Hrdlicka*  and  in 
a  preliminary  statement  he  pronounces  the  ancient  Pajaritan 
people  to  have  been  of  rather  inferior  muscular  development 
and  of  the  dolicocephalic  type ;  moreover,  a  homogeneous 
people,  unmixed  in  physical  characteristics.  On  the  same 


342  EDGAR  L.   HEWETT 

authority  modern  Pueblos  are  predominantly  a  brachycephalic 
people.  This  nonconformity  of  physical  type  seems  to  destroy 
the  hypothesis  of  identity  between  the  ancient  cliff-dwelling 
people  of  this  region,  whom  I  have  called  the  Pajaritans,  and 
the  modern  Pueblos. 

As  before  stated,  the  evidence  on  which  the  hypothesis  of 
identity  was  mainly  based  was  the  testimony  of  the  Pueblo  In- 
dians themselves.  For  example,  the  Keres  of  Cochiti  have  al- 
ways claimed  the  Rito  de  los  Frijoles  as  one  of  their  ancestral 
homes,  and  the  Tewa  of  Santa  Clara  have  in  like  manner  laid 
claim  to  the  ruined  towns  of  Puye.  The  claim  of  the  latter 
village  was  taken  up  for  thorough  examination.  For  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century  these  Indians  have  consistently  claimed 
the  cliff  dwellings  and  community  homes  of  Puye  as  the  homes 
of  their  ancestors.  During  this  period  the  Pueblo  of  Santa 
Clara  has  had  pending  in  the  courts  a  claim  against  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  for  a  large  tract  of  land,  about 
90,000  acres,  lying  west  of  their  grant  and  extending  to 
the  top  of  the  Jemez  mountain  range.  The  basis  of  the 
claim  was  an  alleged  Spanish  grant,  and  in  support  of  such 
documentary  proof  as  could  be  adduced,  their  ancient  homes 
scattered  over  the  plateau,  particularly  the  Puye  villages,  were 
pointed  out. 

This  tradition  certainly  came  to  be  believed  in  good  faith  by 
the  majority  of  the  tribe.  It  was  a  stock  argument  in  pointing 
out  the  injustice  of  the  court  in  granting  them  a  strip  of  less 
than  500  acres  along  Santa  Clara  Creek  in  lieu  of  the  large 
tract  claimed  by  them.  This  case  was  recently  settled  by  the 
setting  aside  of  the  original  claim  and  granting  in  lieu  thereof 
a  new  reservation  embracing  something  near  half  of  the  tract 
originally  claimed.  Since  the  favorable  issue  of  their  suit,  the 
old  men  of  Santa  Clara  are  losing  their  fear  that  the  admission 
of  their  exact  relationship  with  the  people  of  Puye  will  preju- 
dice their  claim.  In  a  council  held  with  their  head  men  in 
August,  1907,  to  consider  their  opposition  to  my  making  exca- 
vations at  Puye,  what  I  believe  to  be  the  exact  truth  of  the 
matter  came  out.  They  do  not  contend  that  their  people,  in 
their  present  organization  as  a  village  group,  were  the  original 
builders  of  the  cliff  dwellings  and  community  houses  of  Puye. 


THE  PAJAEITAN  CULTURE  343 

They  hold  consistently  to  the  tradition  of  a  reoccupation  of  the 
cliff  houses  and  of  some  rooms  in  the  great  community  house 
by  the  Santa  Clara  people  during  the  troubled  times  of  the 
Spanish  invasion.  It  is  possible  that  after  the  Pueblo  rebellion 
of  1680,  some  Santa  Clara  families  lived  for  a  while  in  the  cliff 
houses.  This  could  have  been  but  a  temporary  and  limited 
occupation.  The  acculturation  resulting  from  contact  with 
European  civilization  could  hardly  have  failed  to  manifest 
itself  by  that  time  in  their  utensils  and  in  decorative  motives. 
The  excavations  at  Puye  have  as  yet  yielded  no  vestige  of  such 
influence.  It  is  possible  that  the  irrigating  ditch  along  the 
south  side  of  Puye  arroya  may  belong  to  this  late  period.  It 
seems  likely  that  searching  investigation  of  the  Pueblo  claims 
with  reference  to  ancient  sites  will  usually  result  as  this  case  does. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  some  clans  in  almost  every  modern 
Pueblo  village  trace  their  origin  to  the  people  of  the  cliffs  in  a 
perfectly  consistent  line,  and  this  would  account  for  the  dolico- 
cephalic  strain  found  among  all  the  Pueblos  of  the  Southwest. 
They  are  uniformly  a  composite  stock,  formed  doubtless  by  the 
amalgamation  of  people  from  the  cliffs  with  incoming  bands 
from  outlying  regions. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  disappearance  of  this  plateau 
population  was  due  to  any  event  of  catastrophic  character. 
Certain  evidences  of  seismic  activity  have  been  observed  in  this 
region,  but  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  dispersion  of 
the  people  was  due  to  earthquake  shocks ;  nothing  to  indicate 
any  general,  sudden  exodus,  but  rather  a  gradual  abandonment 
of  the  towns,  as  the  springs  and  streams  dried  up  and  the  sites 
became  untenable  and  the  farms  untillable  because  of  the  failure 
of  the  water  supply.  We  have  as  yet  no  means  of  knowing 
to  what  distance  the  detachments  that  migrated  from  time  to 
time  from  this  plateau  may  have  wandered.  We  find  remnants 
of  them  at  Hopi  and  in  the  villages  of  the  Rio  Grande  valley, 
but  these  small  bands  do  not  account  for  the  large  numbers 
that  must  have  at  one  time  occupied  the  Pajarito  Plateau. 
Among  the  people  nearest  in  physical  type  to  those  whom  we 
have  called  the  Pajaritans  are  the  Tarahumaras,  a  forest  people 
living  along  the  crest  of  the  Sierra  Madre  arid  in  the  barrancas 
of  the  Pacific  slope  in  Southern  Chihuahua  and  Sinaloa.  Also 


344  EDGAR  L.    HEWETT 

among  the  California  tribes  are  found  those  who  conform  rather 
closely  in  physical  type  to  the  ancient  cliff  dwellers  of  the 
Pajarito.  The  Pawnees  are  of  like  type  but  a  greater  stature — 
a  difference  that  might  readily  come  about  with  a  radical  change 
of  habitat  and  mode  of  life. 

EDGAR  L.  HEWETT. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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